Lila turned her monitor back on and nibbled on a sandwich. She used her proxies and a fake ID to hack into Bullstow Financial Solutions. It did not take long for her to bring up Muller’s and Davies’s accounts. As expected, she discovered payments soon after the club raid and Simon’s trial, originating from a Liberté bank account. It was the same account listed in Slack & Roberts’ files.
“Well, well, well, Chairwoman Wilson. You have been naughty.”
It wasn’t the only account that she found. A second Liberté account had paid off Muller and Davies around the same date, matching the amount. It could have been a coincidence, but Lila didn’t believe in them.
She broke into BullNet once more and dug around in Muller and Davies’s case files. From what she could tell, the men had not been on duty the day they received Chairwoman Wilson’s payment, and had only been involved in routine matters on Bullstow property the day they showed up at Club 137.
Lila drummed her fingers on her desk and stared at the screen. Two accounts. Two patrons. Perhaps the officers had one price for all their dirty deeds, but Lila hadn’t seen the same amount repeated anywhere in their account history.
Her palm beeped with an alert.
Zephyr had broken through a fourth layer.
Lila tossed her palm on her desk and brought up all data from the senate job, looking for a lead on Zephyr. The only thing she had was the fire alarm. Its activation had not been a coincidence. Zephyr must have done it, though she was unsure of the motive. The snoop might have meant it as a distraction, something to help her escape, but any half-competent snoop would have assumed that she could get out of the building on her own. A distraction would have been unnecessary, and calling more guards to the area might have hampered her exit.
Lila doubted the purpose was to assist.
Was it just a case of amusement, then? Had Zephyr raised the stakes so that the game was more fun for both of them? Lila couldn’t see how adding a few firemen in the mix would increase the entertainment value.
Had Zephyr meant for her to get caught?
That was much more likely.
Perhaps the snoop had followed her hack, realized her skills were much better than the previous hackers, and decided that hiding from her might be too difficult. It might have been nothing more than a defensive response, and now the snoop wanted to know who had shown up on the playground.
Lila switched her attentions back to the trap itself. It had been crudely buried deep inside the senate’s network, clearly without the knowledge of Bullstow. That meant access to BullNet. It also suggested a certain knowledge of security and a team. Even Lila required one.
She tried to dig deeper into the BIRD to figure out when the trap had been set, but she came up empty. She might be able to pinpoint it, but it would take time that she didn’t have. There were more pressing questions, and her Monday deadline loomed.
Lila rubbed her eyes, needing a break. She took off her jeans and sweater and crawled into bed, exhausted from staying up Tuesday night and getting so little sleep the night before.
She only meant to lie down, but her eyes soon closed.
She turned her head, unsurprised to see Tristan beside her, the cold stone of the Victory Tower against her back as she stared up at the starry sky.
“Klepto,” he slurred, pointing with a wobbly finger, “the oaf who stole Odin’s sword. Odin put him in the sky because he believed that no one should suffer the chains of slavery.”
“Why not kill him?”
“To isolate him, to make him stare down at everything he couldn’t have for all eternity.”
“That’s depressing. I don’t think that’s how the story went at all.”
“Is that so?” Tristan turned on his side and propped himself up on one arm, watching her face. “Tell me how it goes, then.”
“Klepto stole the sword from Odin, you’re right about that, but Odin put him in the sky because Klepto couldn’t control himself, couldn’t stop himself from—”
Tristan rolled on top of her, pressing his lips to hers. His shirt melted away under her fingertips, and she ran her hand
s up and down his smooth, tanned skin.
The pair no longer suffered on the stone floor of the tower; they kissed on Senator Serrano’s large couch instead. Tristan pressed himself between her legs, and Lila fumbled at his belt. She tugged down his trousers with a giggle.
A giggle that stopped in her throat.
For all that she found was another pair of trousers.
Lila pulled away from Tristan’s mouth, and he laughed as she unzipped the second pair, revealing a third, and then a fourth.